MUMBAI: Discontent is brewing within Air India, as pilots from erstwhile Indian Airlines feel left out by the Air India management's decision to train the latter's pilots only to fly the state-of-the art Dreamliner jets.

This is latest in the series of challenges faced by Air India that on Thursday saw the government stepping up its financial commitment to save the airline by easing the cash crunch and enable the national airline to take delivery of Dreamliners.

The executive committee of nine members, including the president and general secretary of the erstwhile Indian Airlines' union, Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA), met senior officials at the civil aviation ministry on Friday that included the civil aviation secretary Naseem Zaidi, to argue their case.

ICPA said if its members are left out of the training, the airline should be prepared for 'dire consequences'. Air India is likely to take the delivery of the first Dreamliner on May 13, though Boeing's India president Dinesh Keskar said that Boeing is prepared to make the deliveries any time in the second half of May.

The line training for the pilots of Air India - about 20 - is scheduled to beginning on April 17. These are the senior executive pilots of Air India, and will take 10 to 25 days. This is precisely the reason why the ICPA has conveyed to the government that if Air India pilots go, the ICPA pilots must follow them. The ICPA had previously dragged Air India to the courts on the same issue of career progression and had stalled pilots' training then for the 787. The court has reserved the judgement on the case.

The pilots of ICPA, about 650 in number, have been demanding for long parity in service conditions post the merger of Air India and Indian Airlines (2007) and also a clear path of career progression after the merger. Flying the Dreamliner has become a matter of prestige between the two sparring unions (Indian Pilots' Guild of Air India & ICPA) as this will clearly lay down the ground rules for further climbing up the organisational ladder and skill and experience enhancement for pilots on either side.

A year ago, the ICPA had brought the airline to a grinding halt last year for about five days and called off the stir when the government assured them of a resolution to the problem and fast tracking the report of Justice Dharmadhikari committee (to recommend integration between Air India and Indian Airlines employees and wage rationalisation).

The five-member committee has already submitted a 100-page report in February this year. "We have been promised that the terms of the committee will be implemented but there's no progress. Similar promises were made in November and then in January with the government finally stating that something should be out by March 31 but that timeline, too, has passed," a senior pilot, an ICPA member, said.

The ICPA on Friday has conveyed to the ministry that if none of its members accompanies the AI pilots to Singapore or London, where the second batch will get the training on 787 simulators, the government should consider demerging the two airlines.

"There is no career progression and we are not paid for five months now, then what is the point of continuing with the airline," rued a pilot. Zaidi refused to divulge details of the meeting with the pilots but said that there was a presentation that was made to the ministry by the ICPA.

As per the schedule made known to ET by ministry officials, the first Dreamliner will fly the Mumbai-London route and the Delhi-Frankfurt route. Initially this first aircraft will fly the domestic routes till it gears for operations and has the pilots to fly it by June. This aircraft which will be delivered in May will be followed by another delivery in June.

The second Dreamliner will fly the Delhi-London sector and the Mumbai-Frankfurt sector. The third aircraft slated to join the fleet in July will do the Delhi-Melbourne-Sydney flights, a long cherished destination of Air India. This is not the first time that Air India will be facing issues from its pilots when a new aircraft induction has taken place.

Back in 2007, when the airline got the first Boeing-777, the aircraft had to lay in the parking bay at Mumbai as the airline did not have pilots to fly them for about two months.

The Dreamliner is important for the turnaround of Air India as the size and fuel efficiency will give the national carrier an advantage that none the domestic airline will have at least till 2014 by when private airline Jet Airways is likely to get its Dreamliner. Air India has 27 of these aircraft on order.